Mathew's comments - Latest Comments in Lacy and Mark Z: Train wreck or lynch mob?

Re: Lacy and Mark Z: Train wreck or lynch mob?

Max — Thu, 03 Apr 2008 13:22:32 -0000

I think the reaction from Lacy is but natural there is a good spirit.

Re: Lacy and Mark Z: Train wreck or lynch mob?

carruthk — Sun, 16 Mar 2008 07:29:32 -0000

I did watch the whole video & it seemed to me that Lacy misjudged much of her humour & her attempts at building rapport did not work as planned. Given the high standards of the overall event I can see why the audience might have gone a little nuts. Also the fact that audiences can now share real time feelings with entire world shows that things have changed a little for presenters. If their gut says they don't like you there is no time for rationalisation - the tweets just go off into cyberspace (it is almost like the id is being set free).

Re: Lacy and Mark Z: Train wreck or lynch mob?

mathewi — Wed, 12 Mar 2008 21:09:03 -0000

And if you can't come up with some half-decent criticism, you'll never
rise above the level of mediocre troll.

Re: Lacy and Mark Z: Train wreck or lynch mob?

jay dandridge — Wed, 12 Mar 2008 20:41:42 -0000

wow, that's some temper you've got, guy. try taking a deep
breath before letting your fingers let loose with flames. if you
can't accept criticism, you'll never rise above the level of
mediocre hack

Re: Lacy and Mark Z: Train wreck or lynch mob?

mathewi — Wed, 12 Mar 2008 12:21:02 -0000

Jeff, I don't particularly care whether you think it's an
unsatisfactory response or not. I think people who come to this blog
know that they will get my opinion on a variety of things -- in this
case, I provided that opinion based on my reading of new reports and
my experience as an interviewer. If that's not good enough then I
guess you need to... well, you know the rest.

Re: Lacy and Mark Z: Train wreck or lynch mob?

jeff angstrom — Wed, 12 Mar 2008 04:47:42 -0000

that's not a satisfactory response to a legitimate question. there is no "blogger's handbook." rather, there's an assumption by readers coming to a site that the author actually knows what he or she is talking about. if you're consistently relying upon second-hand knowledge and then arriving at questionable conclusions, one must wonder about your supposed value-add.

i've seen your "i encourage you to take your eyeballs elsewhere" response on other occasions where readers challenge you. that's a pretty lame response

Re: Lacy and Mark Z: Train wreck or lynch mob?

Dele Travis — Mon, 10 Mar 2008 19:37:02 -0000

I watched the full, uncut video and read the twitter stream over on Digital Daily (http://digitaldaily.allthingsd.com/20080310/quo...) and I have to side with the folks roasting Lacy. She came off as self-aggrandizing and incompetent.

Re: Lacy and Mark Z: Train wreck or lynch mob?

ianbetteridge — Mon, 10 Mar 2008 15:21:23 -0000

I don't think that's actually what I said, Rex. What I said was that the technology amplified the bombing, and made the situation. That's not making a judgment about whether the technology is a good thing or a bad thing, either - it's just stating that it is what it is.

Re: Lacy and Mark Z: Train wreck or lynch mob?

RexHammock — Mon, 10 Mar 2008 15:18:07 -0000

Post session, Twitter (and getting listed on Techmeme) may have amplified it, but the notion that somehow it was because of Twitter than the audience revolted is ridiculous. She merely bombed. It was not the audience's fault or Zuckerberg's fault. It was obvious to anyone in the room that she was bombing -- and that she was arrogantly unaware that she was bombing. Bombing on stage pre-dates the Internet, by the way.

Re: Lacy and Mark Z: Train wreck or lynch mob?

ianbetteridge — Mon, 10 Mar 2008 13:43:26 -0000

It's also a very interesting cultural shift, which raises the deeper question: Is a live event "real" enough to an audience unless they're also receiving the audience's feedback as part of the narrative?

(That sound you hear is my head going "POP" as I try and remember some Baudrilliard, who I suspect would have had something to say about this :) )

Re: Lacy and Mark Z: Train wreck or lynch mob?

mathewi — Mon, 10 Mar 2008 13:37:08 -0000

That's a good point, Ian -- Twitter definitely amplified what was
happening, and may have given some of those in the audience the
impression that they were in the majority, even if they weren't.

Re: Lacy and Mark Z: Train wreck or lynch mob?

mathewi — Mon, 10 Mar 2008 13:29:02 -0000

Paul, I prefer to think of it as "expressing an opinion" rather than
pontificating. Are bloggers only allowed to comment on things that
happened when they were physically present? I don't remember reading
that anywhere in the blogger's handbook. In any case, if my blog posts
irritate you, I encourage you to take your eyeballs elsewhere.

Re: Lacy and Mark Z: Train wreck or lynch mob?

CK — Mon, 10 Mar 2008 11:59:35 -0000

Regarding the comment of "And Zuckerberg was over-briefed.”, in the Youtube video you linked to in your update, she mentions that she and Zuckerberg "discussed what we were going to talk about" before the interview... so he kind of knew what was coming (which can be good, given his shyness, but bad overall, in allowing him to craft answers).

I don't really care about the interview, because I dislike Zuckerberg (given that he likely lied and/or stole code when dealing with ConnectU) and because find Facebook to be overrated... but I find the interview reaction interesting :)

Re: Lacy and Mark Z: Train wreck or lynch mob?

ianbetteridge — Mon, 10 Mar 2008 09:59:40 -0000

I haven't seen the talk, but to be honest, I'm surprised that anyone would expect an interview with Mark Z to be anything other than deathly dull. Steve Jobs he's not. Heck, he's not even Bill Gates.

But what's really interesting is the role that the back channel of live blogging, Twitter etc will have played in reinforcing the audience's reaction. At tech conferences, you have an audience that is largely paying attention to their screens, rather than to what's happening on stage. This means that the reaction of the audience will be magnified, as the reaction is passed from audience member to audience member in real time.

The worst keynote I ever saw was Gil Amelio's 1997 San Francisco Macworld - two hours of dullness, enlivened only by a ten minute talk on NeXTSTEP by the newly-returned Steve Jobs. If that had been being Twittered and liveblogged as much as SXSW, I doubt Amelio would have made it out of the room alive.

Re: Lacy and Mark Z: Train wreck or lynch mob?

paul somers — Mon, 10 Mar 2008 07:20:02 -0000

i'm not pro or anti-sarah lacy. but what's disappointing in your post is that again, you're pontificating about something where you're working with second-hand knowledge. and, sadly, it shows. if you want to view the recorded interview, the austin statesman has reposted a partial clip - about 10 minutes' worth, maybe more - on its web site.

Re: Lacy and Mark Z: Train wreck or lynch mob?

Allen — Mon, 10 Mar 2008 04:51:24 -0000

actually drew/mathew I don't think she was thinking of opening it up for any questions because when she was pushed to do it, there was 4 minutes left.

I stand firm that had she asked the audience ahead of time what types of questions they'd like her to ask, things would have gone completely different.

In fact, people could have recorded questions around the event center using sponsor Kyte phones and then shown the questions in the center.

Oh well, let's all move on - 2 more days here to enjoy.

Re: Lacy and Mark Z: Train wreck or lynch mob?

RexHammock — Mon, 10 Mar 2008 04:45:48 -0000

I was there. It was definitely a train wreck and not a lynch mob.

Re: Lacy and Mark Z: Train wreck or lynch mob?

George — Mon, 10 Mar 2008 03:57:29 -0000

The interview was terrible and everyone sitting around me was muttering within 10 minutes of the start. I didn't know anyone I was sitting near and they seemed to be from many different parts of the country. I wouldn't say any of them seemed radical. Lacy's interview was just plain bad. It started when Mark mentioned that Facebook had launched in Spanish, and she replied "Hey let's hear it for Spain!" For most of the people around me, the just burst out laughing -- to equate Spanish to Spain --especially in Texas or California for that matter seemed uneducated. Then Lacy made one remark after another where she referred to Mark as being a kid or "being 5 when that happened" -- people's unease grew with each one. She also spent more time talking about herself and her previous interviews with him than asking good questions. Her style was that she would make statements instead of ask a question. But most of all, she seemed to be comparing herself to Lesley Stahl repeatedly, she seemed to plugging her book and herself and she seemed to be talking down to Mark all the while she didn't ask more than 1 or 2 good questions. The crowd had waited a long time and expected a much more professional interview.

Re: Lacy and Mark Z: Train wreck or lynch mob?

mathewi — Mon, 10 Mar 2008 03:57:01 -0000

Reading the descriptions, that's one thing that occurred to me too,
Drew -- with an interview that's an hour long, to only go to the
audience for questions with about 10 minutes left just seems wrong.

Re: Lacy and Mark Z: Train wreck or lynch mob?

mathewi — Mon, 10 Mar 2008 03:52:03 -0000

Aren't we though? :-)

Re: Lacy and Mark Z: Train wreck or lynch mob?

drew olanoff — Mon, 10 Mar 2008 03:44:01 -0000

The attendees pay a lot of money to attend SXSWi. Lets also stress the "i", which means Interactive.

The man is the peer of the attendees. He started a social network. SOCIAL. It's a no brainer that Sarah should have employed more of a social style of interview process with Mark and with the crowd.

I wasn't there, but got a call as soon as it was over. It *was* that bad.

Re: Lacy and Mark Z: Train wreck or lynch mob?

Allen — Mon, 10 Mar 2008 03:42:32 -0000

Matt - Here are some thoughts... I was sitting in the 3rd row, got there 90 minutes early to get a good seat and settle in to do live blogging - and nearly 5 minutes into the interview, people started turning around saying negative things about where it was headed. Just to clarify some of the other blog posts, I'd guess 5,000 were watching this live - not 1,000. Was she there to push the book? When I think about it now, I actually don't think she realized when the crowd first started getting loud with applause that the movement was against her moderation versus with her.

Personally I was very much looking forward to this interview -- the only time I heard Mark speak live was at TC40 which was shorter (i think longer would have been great) and most of it was an infomercial for the fbFund. I was hoping that there wouldn't be any announcements here and we could some answers on the future mostly. What's interesting is that just minutes before it started, someone came over and told me he was going to announce something big - not sure if that was the French version or if it turned out to be false.

I found the interview more awkward than anything and a bit boring. She came across as a close personal friend of Mark's and he seemed to not be having it. She cut him off a bunch in the beginning. She kept referring to "Leslie Stahl Moments" when he didn't answer her, which was not appropriate. If you know that Mark is awkward, make sure you prepare on how to deal with it ahead of time. I think Mike did a better job in this area.

She seemed to "poke fun" of Mark for having a journal that he writes things down in. I have a paper journal and Om Malik wrote a lengthy post a year ago about the value of his journal. She even did a yes-no thing with Mark about him burning the journals until she had to call out to catherine Holihan way in the back.

Mark also stuck to basically the same answer all discussion - "we are focused on our missing of communication, etc." -- this frustrated the audience I am sure. No matter the question, he responded with basically the same answer.

What's really interesting is that the first audience question was "so where are you headed with fb" and frankly that was the best question of the entire keynote.

My guess is that it was 80% poor interview, 20% mob - as once the crowd starting cheering on Mark, it seemed to take off from there. To be honest, in 17 years of attending, speaking at, moderating conferences, this was the absolute most shocking crowd reaction I've seen.

It went to all hell when she made "woh is me" comments - the professional singer keeps going on even if someone's boos. She easily could have just continued on but by feeding into the crowd by saying things like "you cant imagine how hard my job is", only fired up the crowd further.

What I don't get is why knowing how big of a fan base and follower base she has, that she didn't ask for questions on twitter or her blog beforehand.

Re: Lacy and Mark Z: Train wreck or lynch mob?

Paul Kedrosky — Mon, 10 Mar 2008 03:35:43 -0000

You Canadians are sooo darn nice and even-handed.

Re: Lacy and Mark Z: Train wreck or lynch mob?

scrawledinwax — Mon, 10 Mar 2008 03:35:23 -0000

What bugs me about this is how it reinforces my sense that a lot of the web 2.0 'technorati' are actually a bunch of elitist... wait, can I swear on your blog? I mean, I get it, a lot of people who are pushing the web forward are very smart, very young, and it bears saying, very cute - but even though the interview did seem to be a bit terrible, the reaction just seems... I dunno - petulant? Jealous? Or just pointless schadenfreude?